Pelikan Teachers' Info has rediscovered an old technique for you: salt dough! Easy-to-make letters painted with PLAKA can be made by your pupils and put to good use in all sorts of lessons.

Salt Dough Alphabet

Experience colours: Salt Dough Alphabet

Pelikan Teachers' Info has rediscovered an old technique for you: salt dough! Easy-to-make letters painted with PLAKA can be made by your pupils and put to good use in all sorts of lessons.

Here's how:

First, prepare the dough. Mix 4 cups of flour, 1 1/2 cups of salt, 1 1/2 cups water and 1 teaspoon of glycerine in the bowl with the mixer.

Then roll out the dough using the rolling pin. Don't forget that the thicker the dough, the longer the letters will take to dry.

Using the forms cut out the letters. Push the forms carefully into the dough and move slightly to the side. In this way the dough will not stick to the sides of the form. By the way, if you cannot get hold of a form, the letters can be shaped quite easily by hand.

Carefully push the letters out of the form.

Use a knife to smooth off the contours.

A finger dipped in water can also be used to bring the letters into shape.

Tip: The remaining dough bits can be kneaded together and used again.

Place a sheet of baking paper on an oven rack and carefully distribute the letters over the paper. A dough thickness of 1 cm requires a baking time of approximately one hour.

Tip: Alternatively, the dough can be left in the sun to dry. Place the letters out of doors for 2 or 3 days.

After baking the letters can be painted. PLAKA paint is the best way to protect the letters from haptic influences. Once the letters have been given a coat of Pelikan lacquer, even sunlight is harmless. The colours will not fade!

Paint all sides of the letters. Tip: Paint the same letters the same colour. For a better differentiation, paint the vowels in a contrasting way.

Once the paint and the lacquer are dry, the letters can be used. One possibility would be to make a simple crossword, another to make words without vowels. The pupils can then add to the crossword or fill in the missing vowels with their self-made letters. In our example, the vowels are painted blue.

A self-made arrow can also be of help. This can point to a word with an incorrect vowel.